As for real life situations, I know that どうしたのis useful to ask what's going on with an occurence that you happened upon.

However, if you happen upon someone else's book, movie, t.v. show, news article, what would be the natural, native way of asking "Oh hey, what's this dvd on your counter about?". Or if someone tells you that the novel they're reading is so cool, and you want to reply, "そうですか？ What's it about?"

I've considered some awkward phrasings of asking that of which I know there must be a better, more natural way.Hence why I'm here. Thank you for reading .